Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with HardDrive and network

In search of a lasting wireless network solution

Rhaomi — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 07:12:09 -0800

After wasting two different off-days trying to get my damnable modem+router working, I want to return them both and get something entirely new. Any good recommendations for a solid, reliable DSL modem and wireless router set-up with decent NAS support? THE STORY SO FAR:

- had an ISP-supplied hybrid modem/router for a few years that worked fine
- bought a new laptop last year and swapped the hard drive for an SSD
- decided to use the spare hard drive as an external drive for storing large media files and performing automatic backups
- bought an Apricorn USB hard drive enclosure designed to support NAS stuff
- bought a Western Digital My Net N600 router with a USB port designed to support NAS stuff (the old modem had no USB ports)
- ran into endless bizarre problems trying to get the N600 maintaining a connection to the old modem in bridge mode
- discovered plugging in and using the external drive was crashing the router firmware
- exchanged N600 for a better-spec'd N750
- more bizarre problems; dropped connections; router web interface sluggish
- tried installing a firmware upgrade from the official website
- now the router won't even boot up, *not even after a paperclip factory reset*

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

There are just too many potential glitches and conflicts here for me to deal with any more -- the fact that the modem is old (and in bridge mode), the general bugginess of Western Digital's routers, the fact that I'm using a laptop hard drive instead of one purpose-built for NAS work.

So I want to start from scratch. New DSL modem. New router. Maybe even a new hard drive and/or hard drive enclosure if that might help.

What I need to know:

- What's the best option for a reliable dedicated DSL modem? No-frills is fine as long as it's reasonably fast and can support a PPPoE connection type.

- What's the best option for a reliable wireless router with support for an external USB hard drive? I'm willing to spend more if it can buy me quality, dependability, and a no-hassle set-up with a decent web interface. I'm seriously tired of troubleshooting unaccountable wifi problems via unhelpful router settings pages that crash often and don't tell me anything useful.

- What's the best option for a reliable external hard drive set-up? I'm not doing enterprise-level stuff here -- I just want it to store my iTunes, my movies, and have some space left over to automatically back up a ~256GB SSD. I already have a laptop hard drive in the Apricorn enclosure I mentioned, and it did allow me to (temporarily) access my files wirelessly. But I'm not sure if the crashes I mentioned were due to the Western Digital router being shoddy or the hard drive/enclosure set-up being inappropriate for that purpose. Should I maybe reformat the hard drive for use as a NAS? Or would it be better to just get a purpose-built USB NAS drive?

I'd also be interested in a decent combination DSL modem/router with NAS support if that would be easier to set up. My current, years-old modem/router hybrid works flawlessly, but just doesn't have any USB ports to plug a drive into (only a USB B port, which apparently can't support that kind of thing).

Any recommendations -- especially based on personal experience with the device -- very much appreciated!

How do I make wired connection to a wireless network?

mskyle — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:54:36 -0800

How can I make a wired connection to a wireless network? I'd like to use my external hard drive wirelessly with my laptop and DLNA-enabled BluRay player - the hard drive is made to be plugged into a router and used in this way. Problem: I share internet services with another apartment in my building and I do not have access to the router, which is in the other apartment. Should I get some kind of wireless repeater/extender and set up my own network off the primary network? This presumably could also solve the problem of keeping other people on the network from accessing the hard drive (not a major concern for me, but probably a good idea). But would this affect performance?

Or should I buy a different hard drive that can connect to the router wirelessly (i.e. has the wireless capability in the same box as the hard drive)? The hard drive I already have is brand new in original packaging and I think I'd be able to return it with minimal difficulty.

Any specific recommendations for either type of product are welcome! My laptop is a MacBook Pro, so I need something that will work with a Mac and I would like something that works with other OSs as well, since I'm not super-committed to the Mac platform and may switch/add new non-Mac machines in the not-too-distant future.

I could, presumably, run the appropriate cable out the window and into the other apartment, or ask my neighbor to host the hard drive in her apartment, but I'd rather just use the drive non-wirelessly if it comes to that.

Second time's the charm?

The Winsome Parker Lewis — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:58:36 -0800

Please help me rearchitect my Apple-specific wireless home network and iTunes library! Eleven paragraphs of geeky details within (sorry!). I have a big (~100GB) iTunes library I've been accumulating over at least a decade of ripping all my CDs and, in more recent days, my DVDs as well. That project is still ongoing and may never end. I've invested a lot of hours in encoding and cataloging my physical media, and I want to keep it safe for, well, forever. I'm motivated by a teeny bit of paranoia that my discs will scratch and I'll lose something. I keep a tidy house but I guess you could call me a data hoarder. ;-)

This summer I decided to free up room on my MacBook (occupying that much disk space just for iTunes was pretty ridiculous). I bought a WD My Book Mirror Edition and moved the library to it. I configured RAID mirroring for the dual drives so I'd have a backup in case one failed. Before the move, I regularly backed up the library onto my Time Capsule (using Time Machine) along with all my other non-iTunes stuff; the RAID mirroring made that seem redundant so I deleted the backup and excluded it from all future backups. Also, instead of connecting the MyBook straight to my computer, I plugged it into the Time Capsule USB port so I could carry the laptop around the house and still use iTunes wirelessly.

I was really proud of this setup until a couple issues reared their heads:

Latency. Playing music in iTunes over this network works mostly fine apart from the occasional stutter. There's also often a very long delay (30 seconds or more) between when I tell a new song to play and the audio actually begins. Similar delays between when I "get info" on a file and the info window appears. iTunes beachballs frequently now, completely unresponsive while it does... stuff. If I wait, it eventually takes care of whatever it was doing and becomes usable again. So annoying.

Latency's an even bigger issue when watching movies. By default, the Time Capsule was configured for 802.11b/g/n compatibility and movies were unwatchably laggy. I found that forcing pure 802.11n improved performance a lot and movies ran almost as smoothly as music, with only occasional, forgivable hiccups and long delays for play/pause, scrubbing, etc. The downside of killing 802.11b/g compatibility is that my iPhone 3G can no longer use the network, as it only goes up to g. I really miss that functionality, for things like Airfoil Speakers and iTunes Remote.

Another issue is the unfamiliarity of maintaining a network drive that's out of sight, out of mind. Whenever I want to use iTunes I have to mount the drive (I run a script to do it automatically at logon). Whenever I leave the house I have to unmount it. I've forgotten a couple times and disconnected improperly. There were also a couple times when I had trouble getting online and reset the Time Capsule, forgetting that the disk was mounted. Which leads us to the next sad, sad paragraph...

This past weekend, tragedy struck. I think it was related to an improper disconnect while data was being written. Suddenly iTunes refused to read the drive at all. Time Capsule reported a "problem" with the drive. I plugged it into the MacBook and ran Disk Utility. It failed to verify or repair the disk and said I would have to format it. What's worse, the mirrored drive was identically corrupted too. I lost my whole library and the supposed "failsafe!" Crap! I really botched this one up.

I'm investigating data recovery options. I should be able to restore my files. Not sure how this is going to play out but it makes my heart ache. Any suggestions for cheap-as-in-free ways to get my library back in working condition would be appreciated.

But what I'm really asking for in this question is the best way to prevent this from happening again and in a way that works better than my first attempt. Assuming the drive is not mechanically broken and I'll be able to get my files back, how can I redesign my network to do all of the following:

Access my iTunes library wirelessly
Minimize latency
Keep a backup of the library that's actually safe and won't give me any more headaches
Use my iPhone on the network
Require no additional hardware purchases if at all possible

I can't think of a single way to fulfill all of those requirements. Maybe it's impossible. But you are smarter than me, I trust. If it makes a difference, the MacBook is a late 2007 Santa Rosa model, 2.2 GHz, running Snow Leopard. Let me know if I've left out any other details that could be helpful. Thanks!

How do I access my network storage from my new computer?

carsonb — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:48:11 -0800

How can I access my WD MyBook World Network Storage Drive from my new (Ubuntu 8.04) computer now that my old (WinXP) box is dead dead dead? I can access the PUBLIC folder no problem, but I have ~100Gb of music in a different folder that's behind a user/pass that I think I had stored in MioNet but can't remember anymore. So, a few questions if you please,

Is there a way for me to access this folder without MioNet? I downloaded Wine today; can I use that to run MioNet? Would that help? Would an SSH tunnel give me access? (damn damn damn MioNet! I'd much prefer to stay away from that horrid program.)

(I've seen the above question answered on the Ubuntu forums, but get stuck on the first step, thus:)
How can I find out the IP address for my network drive? Ubuntu 'sees' it, but I can't seem to wring any relevant information out of what's presented.

Finally, given the answer to the above question, and if it comes to this, will resetting the admin password on the drive (using a paperclip in the little hole on the back) erase all my data?

There's a small chance I can get my old box up and running for a short time, but I salvaged the network card from it so it's offline. I'm really feeling my way through the transition from Windows to Ubuntu, and am not yet altogether familiar with the Terminal interface, so please try to be clear and refrain from jargon without explanation. Thank you very much for any help!

Tell me about current NAS manufacturers and technology?

loquacious — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 04:53:34 -0800

Tell me about Network Attached Storage ( NAS )? In particular what current manufactuers should I avoid for a typical 1 terabyte (or greater) RAID array? I'm also interested in general information and pitfalls for NAS devices and implementations. Deployment is for a mixed platform small office - about 8 seats. Platforms are XP, Vista and OS X.

I'm assuming SAMBA protocol for shares. Usage is low to medium - the office needs a data/file server for storing and reliably sharing typical office documents.

They emphatically do not need an actual server. There's no forseeable upgrade path to an in-office Exchange server or domain controller or the like - this is handled by a remote office through VPN. I could build them a PC-based solution using something like FreeNAS but that would be overkill, and I don't want to introduce a possibly flaky desktop/server into their office.

What NAS models or manufacturers are considered the most reliable? Best support? Best value?

Much thanks in advance!

Network hard drive makes external internet connection impossible!

stopgap — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:12:32 -0800

I have a NAS network hard drive plugged into my router that I use to host my iTunes library. Whenever I'm accessing the drive (especially when syncing the iPod or ripping CDs, but also sometimes when playing songs) all the computers on the network including mine lose most of their external internet connectivity. Is there any way to fix this? The router is a Netgear WGR614v6. The NAS enclosure is a Coolmax CN-550, which is admittedly low-end. Is there another IDE network enclosure with a fan that would solve my problem?

Why Does the Hard Drive Light Blink Exactly Every Second?

petebest — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 15:21:11 -0800

Why is my (windows) hard drive light blinking every second? I've started in msconfig "diagnostic mode - basic devices and services only" and it still does it . . . I noticed it was blinking every second - on the second - when I noticed it synched up with the ticking of the clock on the wall.

Then I wondered what was accessing the hard drive every second.

Using the Start -> Run -> msconfig utility, I've started bare-bones and run diagnostic "Disk monitor" and "Process Monitor" (and "TCP View") from the seemingly excellent Sysinternals site.

I've gotten it so Registry, File System, and Process & Thread activity is essentially stopped - but the HDD indicator light keeps blinking. Every second. Tick . . tick . . tick . .

Nothing looks out of the ordinary TCP wise . . . Spyware, malware, virus, etc. scans show it's clean . . . ???

I thought it was spyware but no processes run, no ports are open, no disk activity - just this @#! blinking light . . .
It's a 5-yr old Dell Optiblast or whatever, and afaik the HDD light didn't blink like this before

Thanks very much for any suggestions . . and happy bidding!

What should I do with my old hard drives?

creeront — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 21:12:50 -0800

I've got a bunch of extra hard drives, and I want to setup a backup NAS type solution so I can backup my data and store movies, tv shows, media, etc. Ideas? I've got 2x 250GB drives, 2x 120gb drives, and 2x 40GB drives and an extra pc. I'm trying to turn all those hard drives into a big file server that can be accessed over the network. I was thinking about getting some sort of eSata solution to hold my drives, and then hooking them up to my existing computer. I don't really want to use the old pc because it's so loud, and uses so much power (480W). Anyone have any better ideas?

All the pc's in the house are windows based, and I'm a bit leery of going the unix route for fear of network configuration woes. I have some linux / unix / solaris experience, so it is an option.

Cheap NAS: Linksys or ASUS or?

gentle — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:50:25 -0800

Linksys NSLU2 or ASUS WL-500G? I am looking for a wireless, cheap (around $100), Unix-based NAS solution that will let me plug in a couple of USB or SATA drives and do things like serve SSH and run BitTorrent. Both the NSLU2 and the ASUS seem to allow uploading custom firmware to run customized Linux distros like OpenWRT and OpenSlug. I am perfectly comfortable with firmware-fiddling and CPU overclocking, but I'm concerned that such hacks are not mature, and that a lot of my time would be spent on getting the thing to run smoothly. Based on your actual experience with these products, how do they fare in terms of performance and stability? The WRT stuff seems all the rage these days; is NSLU2 (which seems to have been launched in 2004) getting old?

(I was also looking at the Linksys WRTSL54GS, but it is not available here in Norway yet. The other WRT* products aren't appropriate to me since they don't have the USB storage support. The Buffalo LinkStation, mentioned in an earlier thread, does not seem to be sold in my country.)

Can I get my firewire drive on a network

allthingsfixable — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 17:03:23 -0800

Is there a piece of hardware that will let me make my firewire external hard drive network accessible without it being connected to a computer? I've had a LaCie external, but would like to make it network accessible. I've been able to find hardware to connect USB drives to a network, but mine is firewire.

The other option is I have a few other hard drives that I could install in a network hard drive enclosure, but am having trouble finding something that seems worth the money (my budget is somewhat slim) and is also mac compatible (I can format the drives with a PC, but will need to access them wirelessly from a mac.)